Historic Book of Negroes gets fresh look through online portal

The image on the computer screen looks innocent enough: A ledger showing a list of names, ages and descriptions of physical stature — all of it written in a precise script that hasn’t been practised in more than two centuries.

But a closer examination of the Book of Negroes online reveals a time when black people were — legally speaking — nothing more than property.

The book was compiled in New York between April and November of 1783 at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War.

It is a record of the 3,000 black refugees — all of whom sided with the British during the war — who were loaded on ships bound for Nova Scotia, then a British colony. [continue]